Abstract

Research on corporal and gestural coordination during
conversations has evidenced behavioral matching and synchronized coordination.
Following the hypothesis that coordination phenomena are related to empathy
(Gallese, 2001; Lipps, 1900), we used a motion capture system to follow head
movements of 28 pairs of subjects during conversations. Half the dyads were
instructed to know each other (empathic condition). Subjects in the remaining
dyads expected the other to lie (non-empathic condition). Positions were
cross-correlated in time for each dyad. A mirroring-coordination analysis (one
moving left equivalent to another moving right) showed that subjects in both
conditions tend to mirror each other within the range of one second. A
corresponding-coordination analysis (one moving left equivalent to the other
moving left) yielded a statistically significant difference between conditions:
coordination still appeared in the empathic condition, but disappeared in the
non-empathic condition. We discuss the implications of distinguishing the two
kinds of coordination.